The rain fell like whispers from a forgotten past, each drop carrying fragments of a memory he could no longer reach.
Ili stood at the edge of the city square, the pendant in his trembling hand heavier than ever.
Around him, the world blurred—lights smearing across the slick pavement, voices drowned beneath the storm's relentless roar.
Then, through the curtain of rain, a shadow stirred. Her shadow.
He didn't need to see her face.
Something deep inside him knew.
It was her.
It had to be.
"Wait… please…"
For a fleeting heartbeat, the world held its breath.
"Is that you…? I finally—"
But the shadow dissolved into the storm before he could finish.
He staggered forward, the pendant biting into his palm as his hand clenched.
Blood mingled with the rain.
It shouldn't have been familiar.
But it was.
"I can't keep chasing shadows. I can't keep chasing these memories..."
The storm swallowed his voice.
"Why…?"
There was no answer. Only the rain.
Only the ghost of a voice he couldn't place.
"Even if you forget me again… I'll find you. I promise."
The words didn't come from the shadow in the rain.
They came from somewhere deeper—buried, forgotten, but never truly gone.
And yet, something lingered.
A weight that refused to fade.
Because the cruelest thing about memory...
is that it remembers even when you try to forget.
Even when it hides... as a dream